Leicester tax preparer pleads guilty to stealing from 2 companies

A Leicester woman is scheduled to be sentenced next month after pleading guilty today to charges of stealing more than $300,000 from two local companies.

Kimberly Powell, 42, of 318 Stafford St., Leicester, entered guilty pleas this morning in Worcester Superior Court to two counts each of larceny of more than $250 and credit card fraud over $250 and a single count of making a false entry in corporate books.

Assistant District Attorney John A. O'Leary told Judge James R. Lemire the larceny charges related to a total of $261,973.69 stolen by Ms. Powell in 2006 and 2007, when she was working as an independent payroll and tax preparer for New England Industrial Engineering Inc.

The prosecutor said Ms. Powell added herself to the company payroll without authorization and was paid $175,973.69 to which she was not entitled. On two occasions in 2006, Ms. Powell told New England Industrial Engineering officials that the company had a tax obligation to the federal government and asked them to wire $43,000 into her bank account, saying she would pay the Internal Revenue Service electronically with the funds, according to Mr. O'Leary.

Instead, she converted the $86,000 to her own use, he said.

The remaining charges to which Ms. Powell pleaded guilty involved a total of about $54,000 she stole in 2010 and 2011 from Westerman Store Equipment Inc. while working as a part-time bookkeeper for the firm, according to George G. Hardiman, a special prosecutor assigned to that case.

Mr. Hardiman told the court Ms. Powell stole the money by writing company checks, to which she was not entitled, to herself and by fraudulently entering charges onto credit cards held either by the company or its owner.

Judge Lemire postponed sentencing until Feb. 7 at the request of the prosecutors and Ms. Powell's lawyer, Charles E. Dolan, and released her on personal recognizance. The lawyers did not make their sentencing recommendations known in open court.

Additional charges against Ms. Powell are to be dismissed at the time of sentencing.